Harvard Square Theatre

This is untrue. They never ran "The Rocky Horror Show" (The Play) They have only had "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" The info on this page is incorrect.

- Jim Hetzer
The Rocky Horror Preservation Foundation
www.rhpf.org

Actually, the Rocky Horror play was indeed performed at the Harvard Sq. Theatre, before the movie ever played there. You can read the review of it in the Boston Globe Archives. A live version of "Oh Calcutta" was also staged there, with the result that the police shut the show down for lewdness!

Also of note, the recent Bob Dylan album "Live 1975" was recorded in part at the Harvard Sq. in 1975. And Bruce Springsteen opened for Bonnie Raitt there in 1974.

Is the main auditorium here still large?

Robert,

The main auditorium, or #1, is comprised of the middle and front of the old orchestra level, and has around 550 seats. The screen is quite large, about 40 feet wide when open for widescreen movies, and the original organ loft grill-work is still in place on either side of the screen, but all other architectural elements are behind dropped-ceiling tiles or drapery. The screen in #1 is actually about 2 feet in front of the old proscenium opening (which is walled up) and hovers over the old orchestra pit.

I think that #1 is a great place to see a movie. Before 2002, it was capable of 70mm presentation and had presented a 70mm copy of "Vertigo" in 1998 that looked great. Unfortunately, the projection system was changed since then and now only screens 35mm.

I've visited this theater for over forty years, although much more in the 1960s and 1970s when it was an ample single-screen cinema. I believe it used to be run by the same outfit that ran the nearby repertory cinema, the Brattle. One recollection: on October 3, 1973 I went to a showing of Francois Truffaut's "Day for Night" ("La Nuit americaine.") Director Truffaut himself made a personal appearance in this Harvard-sponsored event and fielded questions from the audience. I remember that Francophone members of the audience were being very tetchy because the translator was giving imprecise translations of Mr. Truffaut's comments!

After Alan Friedberg's USACinema chain (formerly Sack Theatres) bought both the Nickelodeon in Boston and the Harvard Square in Cambridge, he had visions of creating a sub-chain of Nickelodeon art houses throughout the region. They actually put a Nickelodeon sign on the Harvard Square's marquee for a few years, but the plan never got beyond that point.

Bruce Springsteen's 1974 concert here led rock critic Jon Landau to pen this memorable line: ""I saw rock and roll future and its name is Bruce Springsteen".

For a while, in fact up to the eighties, before it became a chain member, they used to run esoteric double features, the reaon for coupling them was sort of a game. They played 'days of wine and roses' with another film about addiction, ran 'The Green carnation' with Robert Morley's film 'Oscar Wilde', and 'Lawrence of Arabia' with some other 3-hour film. They gave out free green carnations with the former.

The Harvard Square Theatre, originally a single screen, reopened as a triplex on December 17, 1982. At the same time, the entrance moved from Massachusetts Avenue to Church Street.

Initially, they featured first runs on two screens but continued running double-feature repertory programming on the third. The printed double-feature schedules, and the programming on them, were similar to that of the old Cinema 733 in Boston. Later, the double features moved a couple blocks away to the Janus Cinema.

USACinemas (which was formerly called Sack Theatres) bought the Harvard Square and the Janus Cinema in November 1986.

Loews bought USACinemas in March 1988.

The Harvard Square Theatre became a fiveplex, either in late '85 or sometime in '86, creating two additional auditoriums out of seemingly former backstage and/or dressing room areas. (Out of curiosity, where exactly was the former Massachusetts Avenue entrance? I've tried to place its location, but to no avail.)

The original entrance on Mass Ave was basically a storefront with a marquee; currently it is the C'est Bon convenience store. Previously it was the Mass Army Navy store and initially after the entrance moved, it was a a pizzeria.

The retail space occupies the former lobby and they also make use of the old space in the basement beneath the old lobby, which was storage and restrooms.

Cinemas 4 & 5 were indeed built on the stage. The dressing rooms still exist beneath the stage; the Rocky Horror cast still uses them.
Above the drop-ceiling of #5 is the original grid, with old pieces of the rigging still sitting there.

When I worked there I spent much of my free time exploring the various spaces there - the old organ lofts (now empty) the catwalks (there are some huge ventillation rooms in there)and the original projection booth (machinery removed but still some old lighting equipment up there). I have also seen the original blueprints (available at the Mass State Archives at Columbia Point) so i have a good idea of what it USED to look like.

The Harvard Square is now one of only two former USACinemas in Massachusetts that Loews still operates. The other is the Assembly Square 12-plex in neighboring Somerville.

What presently occupies the former lobby space?

Sorry - I forgot I asked that question previously; thanks for your response, Ian.

It's an unfortunate local trend: move the theatre entrance onto a small side street or alley, then convert the old entrance and lobby into retail or restaurant use. You see it not just at the Harvard Square, but also at the Brattle, the Coolidge, and the Orpheum in downtown Boston. At least the Coolidge still has a marquee on the main street.

I liked the Coolidge's old-school marquee better than it's flashy new one. Plus, the architecture of the building facade means that all decorative stuff like signage should accent the front, not the blank side where the current Coolidge's entrance is, though understandably they want to draw attention to where the door is.

It is too bad they don't have the money to reclaim their lobby.

I looked through some early 1975 microfilm of the Boston Phoenix today, and noticed that the Harvard Square was listed in the Sonny & Eddy's Theatres ad, along with the Central Square 1&2, Allston 1&2, Exeter Street, and Academy Twin Cinemas (of Newton). The Galeria (later Janus) hadn't yet opened; I think that came later in the year.

During the late seventies and early eighties, the Harvard Sq. was owned by Tony Mauriello (sp) and Fred Taylor (who currently runs Scullers Jazz Club and also used to run Paul's Mall among other clubs).

I have worked with Fred a few times and he is truly the nicest guy in showbusiness... he and Tony were the ones who multiplexed the theater to keep it going, then they sold it.

Fred Taylor also owned the Cinema 733 (next to Paul's Mall) in the 1970s, and the Janus for a couple years in the 1980s.

If you stand across Church Street from the Breast Cancer mural and Soho Jewelry, and look up at the top of the blank brick wall, you'll see a faded painted advertisement. It reads:

UNIVERSITY
THEATRE
CONTINUOUS 1:30-11 PM

Is Ian Judge actually Ian Cohen?
If so, have you seen the movie about your uncle?

To my knowledge, Ian Judge is exactly who he says he is and has never had another name.
(What movie about his uncle?)

if it's not ian cohen, then haskell wexler is not his uncle.

I am who I say I am and Haskell Wexler is not my uncle!!! These have to be the most random postings ever!

Back to the theater:

When I worked at Harvard Sq. I went on the roof quite a bit and at one point touched up the old "University Theatre" sign with some paint because vandals had sprayed graffiti on it and I was afraid that eventually the whole thing might get painted over a dull red, which was Loews' usual solution to graffiti. So I risked my neck and touched up the old sign to help keep it there.

ian,
during what years did you work at the theatre, and what was your job?

Bill,

I worked there from 1996-2000, starting as an usher and leaving as a manager. Lots of great times with the staff there, including our wonderfully demented doorman Harvey and many others who became good friends. Not exactly the 'glory days' of the theater's history, but fun nonetheless.

I worked there from 1984-1986, starting as an usher and leaving as a manager. I quit and came back several times, but finally could not take the corporate makeovers, and went to the Orson Welles cinema, where i worked until the day it burned down. I did come back to the Harvard square briefly in the late 80's, after working at the somerville theatre for awhile. thebn, after a disatrous stint at the Capitol in Arlington, i quit theatre management altogether. Now I am back in my hometown of Seattle WA where I write movie and music reviews for the Seattel Post Intelligencer. Ian Cohen was a good friend who was a projectionist at the Harvard Square, and I thought he might have posted under a pseudonym. I am glad to hear that the staff of the theatre continues to have fun there, and i will always remember the great people I knew while working there : Mark Sommer, Bill and Ruth Templeman, Paul Neff, Beverly Oster, Joel Cohn, Ken Hastings, Maria Pantazopolous, Vicky Vanasco, Susan Cassidy, Wendy Forbes, Anna Presler, Krista Gullickson, Alisha, Caralee, and all the rest.

Hi, Bill! I think I remember you from the Somerville Theatre. I may even have interviewed you for a newspaper article that I wrote about the theatre. Were you also involved with the Somerville Books & Records store on Highland Avenue in Davis Square?

Hi Ron.
I remember you well.
Yes, I was involved with somerville Books and Records, and later, in 1993, took over the management of The Bookcellar Cafe, which i ran until 1996, at which pont I rweturned to Seattle, after 15 memorable years in Boston. I trust you are still writing and everything is going well for you. If you want to check out some of my writing, go to seattlepi.com and type my name into the search engine. Nice to hear from you.
Bill

Bill,

I know a few of those names for sure. Bill Templeton works for BL&S and services our booth at Somerville quite a bit. Great guy. Also Susan Cassidy, oddly enough, I became friends with her only a few years ago and discovered she worked there too, back in the day. It is like going to a high school reunion sometimes on this website! We've all 'graduated' from the same theaters...

So bill is still at boston Light and sound? a lot of good projectionists went to work for them when the theatre booths became automated. Bill once jerry-rigged a temporary dolby system when we opened purple rain. do you work at the sommerville now? is it still owned by that couple that owns the capitol? i remember once when i was managing there, the projectionist showed a reel of the wild bunch in the wrong order, and when, he finally got them straightened out, projected the next reel upside down. that place was a den of incompetence when i was there. i heard susan had some involvement in writing a script that got produced recently. any truth in that? susan and i were dj's at wmfo for awhile, and she sublet my apartment one summer. i tried to email her awhile ago but never got a reply. thanks for the note, ian, and its good to hear the community of theatre workers is still as tight as ever.

Bill, be sure to check out the Capitol, Somerville, and Orson Welles pages while you're here. I'd love to read your stories from each place.

thanks ron.
i have just posted to the somerville and orson welles sites

I remember this theater with great affection from my undergraduate days at Tufts, 1977-1981, before they (tragically) chopped the place up into little boxes. The film schedule was printed up some three months in advance, and you could get it from street hawkers or the Phoenix. Many was the time I cut classes, smuggled in a soda and a great sandwich from Elsie's (another landmark sadly gone) and spend an afternoon happily ensconced in that big gritty old auditorium watching a matinee double bill for $2.50 in the company of fellow college slackers and various marginal types. Ah, memories.

in one of my weekly meetings with owner tony mauriello, during the years i managed the theatre, i criticized a cuople of the double features. tony replied that the individual films didnt matter' it was the psychological impact of the schedule itself.

The Boston Film Festival, which was held for many years at the late unlamented Copley Place Cinemas, will be split this year between the Harvard Square and Loews Boston Common.

It will be shorter than last year's, just seven days instead of ten, September 9-15. Last week's Somerville Journal had an article about the festival:

Diamond's not forever: Robin Dawson takes over the Boston Film Festival

I think the University Theatre was referred to as the "U.T." in this 1948 review of To Live in Peace from the Harvard Crimson.

The difficult job of being a good usher at the University Theatre in 1937, according to a Harvard Crimson article. Favorite bit: "...whether from Sargent or Radcliffe, any group of girls is bound to mean trouble for an usher."

My July 20 posting proved to be erroneous, as the Boston Film Festival is taking place only at Loews Boston Common and not also at the Harvard Square.

See also my comments about the festival on the Loews Boston Common page.

I went two nights ago... If Harvard ever needed more presentation space, I can't imagine a better theater to restore.

-John

Hey, can anyone remember the double features listed on those wonderful old schedules we all had on our fridges, or send me a link to one online? I want to know what played with King of Hearts.

Some of the ones I can remember are: Swept Away/Seven Beauties, Amarcord/Satyricon, Casablanca/Maltese Falcon, The Magic Flute/Autumn Sonata, Annie Hall/Manhattan...

Picture from 2000 of the exterior here:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/98456395/

I saw "Brokeback Mountain" here last weekend. The staff now all wear AMC uniforms, but they still had a fair amount of Loews Cineplex stuff in the pre-show slides and trailers.

i dont know of any postingson the internet, but i remeber quite a few of them, as i helped program them for a time.

harold and maude was the standard co-feature with king of hearts, although "paths of glory" played with it in may of either 82 or 83.

I remember it as the University Theatre in the 1950s. When the entrance was relocated around to Church Street a fancy decorative new facade was created by painting on all the details.(See photo at head of page).

The things you can find on the Internet these days! I was searching for something else altogether and came across Bill White mentioning a string of familiar names, and a ton of nostalgic information. I hope you're doing well these days, Bill.

Something missing from the picture here is a regular customer, Bobby Panis, who used to go in just about every day for a period of years. He had a gag that worked every time--he'd go up to an employee when no one else was around, start doing something silly like jumping up and down with his eyes bulging and his mouth distorted, somehow get the employee doing it too, then when someone else inevitably came along, Bobby would be standing there, shaking his head and pointing at the employee, and saying "He's not alright."

Here is another recent photo of the Harvard Square Theater.

I was wondering if anyone had, or knows where I might find old photos of the theater from before it's renovation. I recently became the general manager and am very interested in the theater's history.

Hi Mike,

I've not found very many photos from the old days. You can get a feel for what it looked like by poking your head above the ceiling tiles in theaters 1,2, or 3. All the old decor is still up there. You'll need a tall ladder, a flashlight, and a long pole to see above the tiles in #1!

Up on the roof, you can climb into the old fly-loft through a door to the stagehouse (you'll find yourself above the ceiling of number 5.

When I managed the place, I spent many hours poking around everywhere I could. It is an interesting building!

Take good care of Trish, who has worked in various Boston theaters since she was 15, and also Linda, the lady who runs the little jewelry shop that rents from the theater!

-Ian

I will of course take care of Trish. Shes fantastic! And Linda too. Trish was runner up last month for employee of the month, shes still going strong.

I'll give the exploration thing a shot. I have not yet had the courage to go into the catwalks, but I will eventually. I heard bums live in there during the winter, which concerns me.

Did I see that you also managed at Boston Common? I too had that pleasure.

I have never heard that about the bums - all the roof access used to be locked, even the fire escapes (exit only situation). Watch out for the guy with the one fake leg - we used to call him the "Mad Crapper" for obvious reasons. In the summers he used to sleep on the church steps across the street. There is also a middle-aged african american guy, quite tall, who is known to most theater managers in the area, who crawls around the floors of the theaters while movies are playing and tries to steal purses, wallets, etc. He can be dangerous, and once threw a trash barrel clear across the lobby of the Harvard Square Theatre. Coolidge Corner managers and my managers at Davis Square are all aware of this guys shenanigans. He likes to sneak in exit doors primarily.

What fun this business can be sometimes, eh?

The dressing rooms at Harvard Sq. are cool too - we used to have a great punching bag down there for when staff needed stress relief!

I did indeed manage Boston Common - opened the place. What a monster. But working at Loews was a good learning experience - I learned what I liked and didn't like about their operations and priorities, and continue to value the many personal and professional connections I made working for them. I also managed Assembly Square for a while... scary in its own way!

Glad the new management likes Trish. She is a doll, and has some incredible stories, especially about the music scene in Boston in the 70's.

Good luck with the theater. I'm up the road at the independent Somerville Theatre if you are ever in the area; stop in sometime.
-Ian

I live accross the street from the Somerville Theater, kind of behind Johnny D's. I'll deffinitly stop by sometime, I've always liked that theater, but haven't been in a while because I have so many AMC/Loews to go to.

I have heard stories about the "Mad Crapper", but have not yet met him. I have heard some of Trish's music scene stories, they sure are wild.

I really like Harvard Square, but for some reason that I cannot figure out I miss the big theater atmosphere. Maybe I'll go back someday, but for now I am enjoying my time north of the Charles.

There is a MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form for the University Theatre in Cambridge. It has a facade photo taken in April 1941. The entrance at that time was on Mass. Ave. There was a rectangular 1920s-style multi-bulbed marquee but the photo quality is poor and I can't read the names of the attractions. The Report states that the University has been a MGM customer for over 10 years, that it was built about 1925, that it's in Good condition, and has the following seating: Orchestra floor: 1129; Balcony: 495; Loges: 235; total: 1,859 seats.

Not the highest quality video (you can't see the theater at all really) but at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIUjJPEOd0g

you can watch Bob Dylan performing "It Ain't Me Babe" with the Rolling Thunder Revue at the Harvard Square Theatre in 1975.

I went to the Harvard Sq. at least once a week during the 10 years I lived in Boston in the 1970s. I saw most of my very favorite film there, and the theater has a very special place in my heart. It was a one screen theater then, I cannot imagine it as a 5 screen cinema now.

Theater 1 is a great place to see a movie- I saw some big epics on that screen (BRAVEHEART, MASTER AND COMMANDER). Theaters 2 and 3 are both fine, but 4 and 5, built in the "stagehouse", are both below average: long and narrow, a nearly-flat floor,and a smallish screen set too high off the floor. Plus, you have to climb 2 flights of stairs to get to #5 from the lobby. And last but not least, the bathrooms are all the way on the other side of the building, so if you are in theater 5 and you need to take a leak, you have to descend two flights of stairs, walk up a long inclined hallway, through the lobby, then up another flight of stairs to the bathrooms.

Here is a report in the Harvard Crimson on the day of the informal opening of the University Theatre on October 30, 1926 to invited guests. The theatre would formally open the following day to the general public. The first film presentation was The Midnight Sun with Laura La Plante and Pat O'Malley. The online report has it weirdly as "The Mad in his Sun...Stirrings Laura La Planet."! Uh huh, yeah.

Here is a 1925 Harvard Crimson piece on plans to build a theatre in Harvard Square. It would be completed in 1926 as the University Theatre.

In his book A Life in the 20th Century, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. writes a chapter on what he enjoyed while at Harvard in the 1930s. In this quoted paragraph, he mentions seeing movies at the University Theatre in Cambridge and then goes on about the Fine Arts Theatre in Boston:
-----------
"Came the talkies. The University Theater in Harvard Square was a constant refuge. So was George Krasna's Fine Arts Theater, near Symphony Hall in Boston. Here one saw the great UFA movies from Germany - von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Die Frau im Mond (By Rocket to the Moon, both feeding my fascination with the future, and his powerful and scary M, with Peter Lorre as the child murderer. Here too one saw lighthearted German musicals like Erik Charrell's Congress Dances and William Thiele's Die Drei von der Tankstelle, where I acquired an early enthusiasm for the ravishing Lilian Harvey, English by birth but a great favorite in pre-Hitler Germany."

In his satiric 1990 novel A Tenured Professor, John Kenneth Galbraith described a visit by one of his characters to what is clearly the Harvard Square Theatre:

"Walking across the Yard in front of the Widener Library and then along beside Massachusetts Hall, the oldest of Harvard buildings, which now houses the office of the president, he made his way through the traffic in the upper part of Harvard Square. Glancing around out of habit to see that he was unnoticed, he went into the recently refurbished movie theatre. Once one great hall for the display and breathless admiration of Pickford, Chaplin, Swanson, Grant, Cooper and Bacall, it was now divided into five anonymous cubicles, each with its equally anonymous offering. Professor McCrimmon chose one at random and settled down for the afternoon."

Chain is AMC Theatres. Here is a recent photo.

It appears that Sonny & Eddy (chain owned by Edward "Eddy" Lider's Fall River Theatres) acquired the Harvard Square Theatre in fall of 1974 and sold it in April 1976 to the owners of Cinema 733, H-B Enterprises (the above-mentioned Mauriello & Taylor). S&E found the Harvard Sq. redundant after purchasing the Galeria in October 1975. That's from a Harvard Crimson aricle you can see here.

Another S&E property, the Central Sq., was purchased by the Brattle Theatre Company in early June 1977. The successor operators of the Brattle (the Pollacks) ended up acquiring the Galeria from Lider in 1984 (he also gave up his lease at the Exeter around this time). In 1986, the Pollack's Brattle entered Chapter 11, and the Harvard Sq. Theatre folks purchased the Galeria to run their double bills. This didn't last long, as that fall both theatres were acquired by USA/Sack.

The Harvard Square Theatre......ahhhhh, yes!

I remember when it was a revival movie house, back in the 70's and early to mid 80's, and a single-screen theatre, to boot. I remember going to see a number of cool films, such as Around the World in 80 Days, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a number of other films, including my alltime favorite, West Side Story. It was a cool theatre--I miss those days.

I also might add that I've seen In the Name of the Father, and, more recently, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in the Harvard Square Theatre. I also saw Schindler's List there too, which was a sold-out show, during the winter of 1994. All good movies.

While I was an undergraduate at the school across the street in the late 1960s, I worked part time at the Ferrante-Dege camera store at 1252 Mass Ave. One of the "older" (that is "adult")employees at the store, Bob Smith, was the night manager at the Harvard Square, and when he was on duty he let other FD staff in at a substantial discount. Plus, we got to sit in the loge, which was otherwise closed. I recall that the seats were wicker and had upholstered cushions. (Is my memory failing me?) And when my girlfriend and I went there we'd generally know the few other people in the loge.

Unfortunately, Ferrante-Dege closed on October 13, 2006.

I still miss the days when the Harvard Square Theatre was a revival movie house.

This is a 2006 close-up view.

Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d7fu8e

anyone know how to find printed schedules from fall1 979-spring 1980? would love to revisit those movies i saw, many for first time

You might find such schedules in advertisements in the Boston Phoenix and Real Paper, which are archived at the Boston Public Library.

Here is a 2009 photo.

Does anyone know if / when The Wizard of Oz showed at the theater in 1939? Just a confirmation it was shown in that year would help. Thanks.

Hi Larry, Can't confirm for sure, but the University Theatre played a lot of M~G~M product, so it is likely that "Oz" played at some point in its general release.